His sister wouldn’t give up the video game controller, so the boy shot and killed her, police say

When Dijonae White, 14, and her 9-year-old brother got into an argument over a video game Saturday, he knew right where the gun was, police say.

Sheriff Cecil Cantrell told WTVA that the .25 caliber bullet the boy fired Saturday went through his sister’s brain, a swift and tragic end to their argument over whose turn it was to play.

Dijonae White, 14, died Sunday evening while in intensive care at a Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Alan Gurley, the county coroner, told WCBI. She was first rushed to a hospital in Amory, Miss., before being taken to the children’s hospital two hours away from her home.

The handgun the 9-year-old used to kill his sister was stashed in a nightstand in his mother’s bedroom and was registered to his mother’s boyfriend, Cantrell told the New York Post. It was not immediately clear whether the gun’s owner would face any charges as a result of the shooting.

The boy was in shock and in tears while being interviewed by deputies, WCBI reported.

The Jackson Clarion Ledger reported that there is no law in Mississippi that holds an adult responsible when children have access to weapons that are not secured.

“She wouldn’t let him have the controller,” Cantrell told the Post. “So he walked behind her and shot her. That’s what he told us.”

The boy was in his mother’s custody Monday after shooting his sister in the back of the head, according to the Clarion Ledger. His mother was in another room in the house, feeding lunch to three or four other children at the time of the shooting, the paper reported.

Dijonae White was a student at Tupelo Middle School, where she was on the basketball team, WCBI reported.

“I think he understands, but at the same time, he doesn’t understand,” Cantrell told the Post. “They play these video games where people get shot and killed and then they hit the reset button and everyone’s fine.”

This story was originally published March 20, 2018 at 8:30 AM with the headline "His sister wouldn’t give up the video game controller, so the boy shot and killed her, police say."